


Christmas Ghosts and Imaginary Mistletoe

by piece_of_the_stars



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Episode Tag, Episode: s06e06 How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Missing Scene, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 17:45:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5507012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piece_of_the_stars/pseuds/piece_of_the_stars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulder and Scully celebrate Christmas after a night of ghost hunting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Ghosts and Imaginary Mistletoe

They sit on Mulder’s worn couch with mugs of hot chocolate in their hands and wrapping paper thrown on the floor. They swap stories of past christmases, of family traditions, and of their childhood letters to Santa until the hot chocolate has cooled and their mugs sit forgotten. Mulder reveals his secret love of A Miracle on 34th Street, something he watches every year while he sits at home.

They find it playing on TV at 3:30 on Christmas morning and they both find themselves thinking that luck might just be on their side this holiday. Scully silently sends her thanks that they’re able to watch it together this holiday. She hates the thought of him sitting on this couch year after year watching movies while she’s across town with her family. She’s glad that, for once, his traditions won’t be spent alone. But they only make it 20 minutes into the film before a night of chasing ghosts catch up to them and they drift off to sleep. Scully’s head falls on his shoulder and, in their sleep, their hands reach toward each other.

Scully wakes up a few short hours later to the sound of a car alarm going off on the street outside Mulder’s frosted window. She sits with her head on his shoulder and stares at their hands. These hands have dug through corpses and pulled triggers but, when they join with Mulder’s, she can’t think of them ever being used for anything but good. His hand could swallow hers whole yet every time he takes her hand, she feels herself growing taller, stronger, like nothing can break her down.

She doesn’t know when but she has come to recognize this man who believes in the spectacular as the source of her strength, as an extension of her entire being. Somewhere along this country’s back roads while hunting for aliens, she forgot who Dana Scully was before Mulder entered her life. The thought used to terrify her, keep her up at night, but now there are worse things that haunt her dreams. Worse things that only Mulder could even comprehend, worse things that only Mulder seems to be able to help chase away.

Things like Emily. Her family doesn't understand the loss she feels for that little girl, the daughter she only got to know for a few days. They don’t understand that every time she sees her nephew she can’t help but remember holding her daughter when she stopped breathing. She loves her nephew but his laughter and wide eyes remind her of a child that she’ll never get to know. They won’t understand why she has a wrapped present under the small tree in her apartment that will never be opened. Inside the package labeled with the name ‘Emily’, a cross necklace rests inside a box, never to be worn. She bought it for her daughter, just as her mother had done for her so many years ago.

Mulder was there when she found it. They’d stopped for gas in the middle of Wyoming and Scully got out to stretch her legs. There was a shop next door selling knick knacks and Mulder walked in the store to find her staring at the necklace, unmoving. He silently made his way to her and only then did she look away from the gold cross in her hands. He lead her to the register where she paid and he did the talking for her, knowing she had nothing to say. When they were back in their rental car, Mulder silently took the hand not holding the necklace and laced their fingers together. They drove silently back to their motel and haven’t said a word about it since.

Mulder shifts beside her as if he was able to hear the haunting thoughts floating around in her head and needs to remind her of his presence beside her. Scully squeezes his hand, sending a silent thank you for taking away her grief yet again. Part of her longs to spend the day here with Mulder, knowing that he would keep the memory and pain she feels for the daughter she will never raise from consuming her. He has already prevented her from spending the night laying awake in her bed, thinking about how different her life could have been had she been able to get to know her daughter. One phone call from Mulder turned her night around. Sure, she was locked inside a mysterious house and shot by her “partner” but now look where she is.

She knows that she can’t stay on Mulder’s couch forever, that she has to get up and face the world, but still she doesn’t move. She spends just a few more minutes soaking in Mulder’s comforting warmth just as she did all those months ago driving along dirt roads. She knows she has to get going soon if she’s going to make it to her mother’s in time. She’s expecting her bright and early to spend the day opening presents, eating food and celebrating the holiday with her family. Her brothers have flown in and are already staying at her mother’s house. Across town, her family could be up and waiting for her yet as she watches her partner slowly come awake at her side, she can’t think of a single reason to move away.

When he turns to her with a sleepy smile, she can’t help but return the look with one of her own. She squeezes his hand once more and he looks down in confusion, surprised to see them joined. The thought of reaching out to each other in their sleep is warms them both more than the hot chocolate they had earlier. Scully laughs at his expression before slowly slipping her hand from his, immediately feeling a loss from their severed contact.

When she stands from the couch, he follows, never being more than a few steps away. The loss of Mulder’s warmth as she puts on her chilled coat is almost too much for her to bear and she aches to return to her spot at his side on the couch. But she keeps moving and he follows her to the door with her present in his hand. When he gives it to her, their hands linger longer than they would normally allow.

She smiles softly and thanks him. And though she doesn’t say it, her gratitude is for more than just the small gift he had give her. Her “thank you, Mulder” stands for the past six years and all that they have experienced since the day she walked in their basement office and shook hands with “the FBI’s most unwanted”. It stands for inspiring her everyday with his unfailing belief and for being her strength when she has nothing left to give the world. She thanks him for knowing her more than she knows herself at times and for dragging her out of her hotel room in the middle of the night to see the dancing lights in the sky. Most importantly, she thanks him for inviting her to hunt ghosts on a night that could have tortured her.

Mulder smiles at her thanks and returns the words. And though he doesn’t say it, his gratitude stands for her saving his life time and time again and making him feel wanted for the first time since his sister was taken from his life. He thanks her for coming into work everyday and listening to the theories that he knows she doesn't believe without ever calling him ‘Spooky Mulder’. He thanks her for being the one person in the world to understand him and sticking by him when no one else has. He thanks her for trusting him to be there for her when she grieves for her lost daughter, the daughter he loves and considers to be his own. Most importantly, he thanks her for the love they share as partners, friends and soulmates that stay together in this life and all the lives they have lived.

They may not have said the words to each other but they both feel the love they share with every passing moment. They tell each other of their love every time Mulder walks with his hand on Scully’s back and every time she checks him for head wounds. When Mulder yells “SCULLAAAYYY” in the woods, it’s him shouting his love from the rooftops. They tell the world of their love with every refusal to budge from the side of a hospital bed. For now, the simple knowledge that the love is there is enough.

Those three words have never felt necessary when some of their most important conversations have happened without any words at all. Its with every look shared and every hand held in the face of darkness. Its with every light they shine in the dark and alien conspiracy that they chase after. Their love is impossible to be described in conventional ways because nothing about their lives has been conventional since the moment Scully ran to his motel room and made him look at mosquito bites on her back.

All the words they ever need to say to each other are said in all the moments when their eyes meet and they stand together without acknowledging the world around them. They’ve created a thousand worlds of their own in moments like this, standing by Mulder’s door, smiling at each other and eyes never leaving the other’s face.

When they finally break eye contact, she steps into his arms and hugs him, soaking up his warmth. When she pulls away and wishes him a Merry Christmas, he places a kiss to her forehead. She smiles at him once more before finally breaking away and turning to leave. She opens the door but only takes a few steps away before stopping with her back to him. She stays that way for moment before turning back and looking at him, her face masked in concentration searching his face for something. He watches her with the same fascination he feels every time he gets to see her mind at work.

She steps back into Mulder’s space under the doorway and reaches up to pull his face level to her own. The air around them shifts and Mulder’s eye widen in surprise before her lips touch his softly. They have their first kiss in the doorway of apartment 42 under an imaginary mistletoe.

She breaks away sooner than either of them like and smiles at his shocked expression. They’ve said more to each other in this moment than ever before. They've just said all the words they've only ever stopped themselves from saying. It’s the moments that they’ve hidden their pain from the other and it’s the nights where they learn to laugh again. It’s all the bad and the good times they have shared. It’s ‘you’re my strength’ and ‘I wouldn't be here without you’ and ‘I love you’ all wrapped up in one. It’s everything they’ve ever been through and it’s a promise of the future they’ll one day share.

When Scully steps away from him, there’s no sense of the loss she felt before. The two partners are bound together by the words they shared when their lips touched. The relationship they’ve longed to have with one another feels closer than ever. Only a night chasing monsters in the dark could bring them closer together and lead them to this moment. As they both step into their respective holiday traditions, they can’t help but think that this year, this christmas, just might be the most wonderful time of the year.


End file.
